BBDA News ”The Future looks brighter”

BBDA News “The Future looks brighter”

All new website

Roger Webb has been working hard for BDAA since its conception in 1996, over the years Roger has been able to self teach on the web design for BDAA, which has been a major part of our promotion.

Now Roger has designed a simple yet effective website which is suitable for visitors with disabilities especially those visitors who have visual impairments, some visitors have commented that the site looks a little clinical, as a charity we have to consider all disabled visitors and try with limited funding to welcome everyone and compromise.

We have a duty to offer equal opportunity to all disabled people to gain information on disabled fishing, the website is designed to provide this of which we are very proud that some visually impaired visitors have commented they can now visit and navigate around the site; BDAA will continue to improve our web site and make sure that people with all disabilities are welcome on it, clutter , colours, animations etc can cause major problems for disabled visitors.

Approved Fisheries Award scheme launch

Before the end of April the BDAA will be launching a new Approved Fisheries Award Scheme on a specially designed website, supported by Dreamstore. There are two parts to this new micro-website. One is a very formal area where angling waters are formally evaluated to receive one of four Awards from four categories. The other is one for BDAA’s friends and supporters to highlight angling locations that they have used and comment on their suitability for disabled anglers.

Before we launch we need to test the process of public access to the site, and to start building a library of angling locations suitable for disabled anglers. You can help us by logging on to www.dreamstoreactive.org/afas/ and going through the site.

At present there are no locations reviewed on the site, so our search capacity is a bit redundant. We hope that very quickly this site becomes useful for disabled anglers to find a suitable fishing location close to their home. We know that there is a lack of good facilities for disabled anglers around the country, so this site will help us identify what there is and promote the very best.

Before the end of April the URL for the micro-site will change and I will let you know when this happens so you can add the new site to your favourites and keep us in touch with your experience on waters around the country.

Volunteering for BDAA

You can now join the BDAA team of volunteers online, we have invested in software which will enable you to enter your details in confidence to help BDAA by volunteering your time to help others.

Already dozens of people have registered their interest in helping with our projects & schemes, we are arranging for all these generous people to come along to a meet & greet session to be arranged for late May in the Midlands region.

We can offer training in angling coaching, Access auditing, Disability Awareness delivery and much more; we want you to join the dozens that have already registered. Click here to fond out more

Making a difference

Over the past 2 years, BDAA has been working in partnership with Dreamstore www.dreamstoreactive.org & the Environment Agency, Dreamstore has helped us to develop into a professional, structured organisation with purpose and direction, the combination has seen a number of projects developed and delivered which can be viewed on the BDAA & Dreamstore websites.

Terry Moseley as President BDAA commented “The relationship formed between BDAA & Dreamstore has enabled us to fulfil many of the dreams & wishes we had in a short period of time, being structured was definitely the key that Dreamstore gave us through their support”.

Coaching academies, new opportunities, grant support are just a few of the things we have seen over the past 2 years, the Dreamstore Education Action Zone is one of the finest ways to introduce children to fishing we have ever seen, both indoors and outdoor experience, visit both BDAA & Dreamstore web sites to read more.

The Environment Agency has been working with BDAA to improve the environment & access for disabled people (more here) there are dozens of sites that BDAA have carried out audits to ensure that the future of angling has an easier time accessing facilities regardless of the disability, more information is available on the web site.